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Da Vinci Code no knock-off, court rules
More articles on this topic: Da Vinci CodeNEW YORK: Best-selling author Dan Brown has won a court ruling against another writer who claimed Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code copied elements from two of his books, Brown’s publisher, Random House, said.
Brown avoided $US150 million in damages author Lewis Perdue had sought in a legal ruling that characterized Brown’s blockbuster book as an “intellectual” work.
Perdue had claimed Brown’s 2003 book The Da Vinci Code, which has 36 million copies in print worldwide, infringed the copyright of his novels “Daughter of God,” which was published in 2000, and The Da Vinci Legacy, which came out in 1983.
Perdue sought $US150 million in damages and asked the court to block distribution of the book and a movie of The Da Vinci Code that is in production by Sony Pictures.
He alleged that Brown copied the basic premise of Daughter of God, including notions of a “divine feminine” and the transition from a female to a male-dominated church under Roman Emperor Constantine.
Perdue said he would appeal the ruling within 30 days.
“I have no doubt that we’re going to see this overturned on appeal because there have been copyright infringement cases where the parties had less to go on than we have and they were able to have their cases overturned,” he said.
Perdue said he read Brown’s book after getting unsolicited e-mails from readers pointing out the similarities in their works.
“I felt violated, like somebody had broken into my head,” he said. “It took away the results of my creativity.”
The Da Vinci Code has been condemned by the Roman Catholic Church because the plot is based on the theory that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had children, whose descendants have endured to the present day.
Perdue’s book Daughter of God” is an art-world thriller featuring an American husband and wife and involving a document that tells the story of a second Messiah named Sophia who lived in the fourth century.
Judge George Daniels of US District Court in New York made a detailed analysis of the plots of the two books, as well as Perdue’s earlier work, The Da Vinci Legacy, which shares some elements with his later novel.
“A reasonable average lay observer would not conclude that The Da Vinci Code is substantially similar to Daughter of God,” Daniels wrote in his summary judgment.
“Any slightly similar elements are on the level of generalized or otherwise unprotectable ideas,” he said, adding that copyright did not protect an idea, but only the expression of an idea.
Daniels said while both novels were mystery thrillers, Daughter of God was more action-packed with gunfights and violent deaths.
“The Da Vinci Code, on the other hand, was an intellectual, complex treasure hunt,” he said.
Brown initiated the proceedings by filing a suit seeking a declaratory ruling his book did not infringe Perdue’s copyright. Perdue, who has a website documenting what he calls Brown’s plagiarism, then countersued.
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